Yoga for Constipation Relief, Restorative Video Series

Transcription

Welcome. I'm so glad you're here. We'll be moving through several yoga poses today focused on relieving constipation. I'm here with Scott who has two towels and a blanket, so if you have those available at home, please go grab them. I have two yoga blocks and a blanket here for mine, so we'll be showing you different variations of the same poses. Our first pose that will come in today is a supine twist, so we'll move to our backs here. And so I invite you to grab whatever props and just have them handy here just because we want to make sure that you're comfortable when you come into these shapes. So you'll bring the back down onto the mats and then bring the knees up toward the chest here. Maybe you give yourself a little rock side to side, and then we'll drop the knees off to the right side. So Scott will model what it looks like to have support underneath the legs and then also between them. And so I have a yoga block here, and so I can place the yoga block here between my legs as well. And then the arms can see the body here.

But basically we just want to be heavy here, and we don't want any free floating body parts here, so you can really relax into the shape. You can also do this without any props, if that feels okay in your space. But again, just feeling heavy here, connecting with your breath.

We'll be here for about three more breaths, and if it feels okay, maybe you close the eyes here. Last inhale here, and exhale. Go ahead and remove any props that you have on this side. And then we'll gently just bring the souls of the feet to the earth, bring the knees back into the chest. Maybe you give yourself a nice little rock side to side here, and then we'll drop the knees over to the left.

So again, make your choice what level of support you need your body and you know what you need, so please take that, whatever that looks like for you. We want you to feel supported and feel comfortable in these poses to really be able to relax into them. Taking three more breaths here. Last inhale here and exhale.

Again, gently moving here. We don't want to move too quickly, so just removing your props, bringing the souls of the feedback to the mat. You can roll off to your favorite side. So we'll be coming to sphinx pose here. And so what this looks like is we'll be bringing the forearms parallel and the elbows underneath the shoulders. Now Scott's going to show you what it looks like with a blanket underneath the hips here, and it's a lovely variation to get a little bit more padding if that's what you need.

And then if you have something, maybe you have a block or a water bottle at home, you can always rest your forehead here, but our leg should not be active at all, so you really should be letting that lower half of the body just be heavy here. And we're getting a nice chest opening and just letting the belly settle here on the mat.

Taking three more breaths here. Wherever you are, you can also bring the hands up and rest your head here if that feels okay. Last inhale here. And exhale. Our next pose will be a supported child's pose, so we'll just press up into the palms. We'll move through a tabletop position here. And so we want to set ourselves up for success. And so Scott will show you what it looks like with the blanket and his two towels underneath his chest. So he'll just bring that blanket between the thighs here and then rest on that. I'll show you another variation here, which is you can actually take a blanket behind the knees to get a little extra cushion, which is really lovely. And then I'm going to relax down on these two blocks. So my chest will come to the first block and then my forehead on the next block. And we want our heels, or we want our hips to be heavy toward our heels here, being able to relax into this pose.

Now, I'll also show you what it looks like to not have that support underneath the chest so you'll just bring the forehead down to the mat. Maybe you rock your forehead side to side here, but just allowing yourself to be heavy here. We'll take three more breaths here, wherever you are. Last inhale here, and exhale. 

Now you can stay in this pose as long as you'd like, or you can press up and come to an easy seat. Thank you so much for being here with us today. I hope that this helps alleviate some of the constipation symptoms you may be having. Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you again.